Posts tagged “WSCXGP”

The season is hurtling full tilt toward the NorCal Nevada District Championships later this month at the Cal Fire Training Facility. After more than 2 months of racing, cyclocross in the region is starting to see the cream rise above the crop, particularly after BASP’s Sierra Point weekend. Even so, racing across all categories has been terrific and is boosted by good numbers for race-entries. The West Sac Cyclocross Grand Prix drew close to 400 riders after nearly 300 racers turned out at The Lobster Cup, this season’s early opener. The Sacramento Cyclocross Series has approached the 400 racer mark for nearly all of their five events and often sees more than 70 racers in the Women’s categories. Of course, BASP’s opener drew over 500 race-entries.

And from the youngest of Juniors, to the most tarnished of Cat C fodder, to the well burnished top category racer, excellent cyclocross and bike handling skills have been quite apparent.

Tomorrow, the Sacramento Cyclocross Series is set to open it’s 2015 season with their event at Orangevale Park, Orangevale. Event organizers Jen and Clint Claassen and TimeYourRace have already been busy this season, providing timing and scoring at the West Sac Cyclocross Grand Prix and CrossReno, so they are in grand form for their second season in charge of SacCX.

The Claassen’s reinvigorated the series last year by moving venues closer to Sacramento and laying on a terrific District Championships at the Lange Twins Winery. This season there is again an eight-race calendar; the series includes two new venue at Lakeside Church, Folsom, and the Sacramento Raceway, an earlier October date for Lange Twins, and a December night race to close out the year.

The Sacramento Cyclocross Series has been running for many years starting under the auspices of John and Linda Elgart in 2002-03. Rich Maile took the helm for a further 3 years before Brian Joder and BicyclingEvents.com began running the series for 2010-11. It’s rich history has seen many national champions take to the field including both Elgarts, Cody Kaiser, Don Myrah, and Kateřina Nash. A certain claim-to-fame for several years was the naked cyclocross race at a clothing-optional resort.

After an impressively positive inaugural West Sacramento Cyclocross Grand Prix presented by Cederon, last year, the return of this festival was a measure of success for the organizers and in particular for Matt Hargrove. “Individuals of the community come up with bright ideas and just act on them,” said West Sacramento Mayor Christopher Cabaldon. “This is not a City project. We provide some support but this is a result of a set of local and regional volunteers that make something amazing happen. It brings some attention to the community and it brings folks back to the River Walk [Park] but it adds something different. You can’t go anywhere else in the region and see this level of cyclocross. So its a really, really special thing to contribute to the region and add to the urban core here in the Sacramento area.”

With temperatures never approaching the forecast mid-nineties, courtesy of a small breeze and a nearby California wildfire keeping the sun at bay, racers enjoyed modestly more comfortable racing. The day remained overcast with high clouds and smoke. Even so, well prepared organizers saw advantage made of the many amenities in place to combat the anticipated heat.

In just 4 days, weekend cyclocross racing for NorCal Nevada begins with the Lobster Cup. Most of the race-organizers have their 2015-16 events posted on web sites or social media. For an up-to-date listing of all events, including interweb-links, go to the Fit and Filthy calendar or click on the Calendars button (upper right). This calendar remains updated throughout the season.

This coming year may very well improve upon many terrific races produced in NorCal Nevada last season. Some highlights from 2014-15 include the return of the Clark Natwick GP, big attendance at the inaugural WSCXGP, a muddy Surf City Cyclo-X at the Fairgrounds, and the district championships held at SacCX’s Lange Twins venue.

Clif Bar is putting on relay racing at Cykel Scramble and Central Coast has three races in September. There is even mid-week racing at the Folsom Rodeo Cross before SacCX opens their book at Orangevale Park on 27 September. All of these events appeal to a wide range of racers from the community and are certain to bring in more terrific racing.

As of this past May, one negative to the season so far is an apparent but, with hope, temporary, cessation of the NorCal versus SoCal California State Cyclocross Championships. Sam Ames struggles to find better dates for the event than the end of January without running into conflicts with other races in December.

Now, with less than a work-week remaining, the summer is all but over and ‘cross racers from NorCal Nevada have waited long enough.

The West Sacramento Cyclocross Grand Prix, presented by Cederon, is set to run again on 12 September 2015 at the River Walk Park. The successful inaugural event last year proved popular with over 350 racers on the day, including four categories each with more than 40 competitors.

“One of the reasons why the WSCXGP was so awesome and so successful is teams from the Bay Area showing up in force,” reports Matt Hargrove. “It was awesome. That singlespeed race last year was fantastic because we had a whole bunch of really fast guys come in from the Bay Area.

“The response throughout the year from folks has been extremely positive. I think the vibe we were able to put together last year, Rich Maile and Pete Knudson putting together such an awesome racecourse, and that we had such a great facility, all those things together really went well.

“Most have been raving about the race, making sure its coming back, asking when it is, and trying to see if we’re on track for making it a bigger and better race. The vibe has been all very positive.”